In a rare case of successful intervention by the Pakistan police, a Christian couple has been saved from being lynched by an angry mob in a Makki Village, Sheikhapura District, in Punjab, Pakistan. Unlike previous cases, where charged up mobs have burnt and beaten to death innocent Christians, accusing them of blasphemy, the timely intervention by the police on this occasion has come as a pleasant surprise.
According to the Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS), an organization working against Christian persecution, a local Muslim woman, Kaneez Asghar, asked Rehana Qamar, a Christian woman, to sell a floor mat to her. Upon close inspection of the mat, Kaneez found Quranic verses printed on this panaflex mat, formerly used to advertise college admission. She also noticed that the children had been sitting on the mat and eating food.
Kaneez offered to pay 400 rupees for the said mat, while Rehana asked for 1,000. After some discussion, Kaneez said that she would get the money from home, and went away. But she returned with local Muslim Nasir Sansara Bhatti, who pulled Rehana’s by the hair and slapped her, taking the plastic mat and photographs of it. Later, a frenzied mob painted Rehana and her brother-in -aw Ashraf Masih’s face black and paraded them throughout the village on the back of a donkey.
As the situation deteriorated, the local pastor called the police for help. The police immediately took the victim in protective custody. The police have arrested one of the accused, a local cleric, while the other two co-accused are at large. According to the police, one of the accused was interested in obtaining the Christian family’s property.
The Christian community is concentrated mostly in Punjab Province of Pakistan; this is also the province where much of the worst violence against Pakistan’s Christian community has taken place. This includes a rampage in 1997 by a large Muslim mob that burned down an entire Christian village, leaving 20,000 residents homeless. It also includes a wave of violence on 9 March 2013, when a Muslim mob burned down more than 170 houses, 16 shops, and two churches in a Christian neighbourhood of Lahore, the capital of Punjab Province. On 5 November 2014, a Christian couple was burnt alive in a brick kiln by an angry mob alleging that they had committed blasphemy.
Violence against the Christian community, which forms about 2% of the total Pakistani population, has been on a steady rise. The community fears for its life and suffers social and economic discrimination. Even at the political level, Christians and other minorities, are severely under represented. In the National Assembly of Pakistan, only 4 members are nominated from minority groups. Representation in the Union Council, the Tehsil Council, and the District Council is 5%, but in the Provincial Assemblies and National Assembly, the government has failed to provide 5% representation to non-Muslims. The hardliner factions in Pakistani society have further alienated the once well-integrated community.
The disintegration and anti-pluralism has exposed a fault line within the country’s complex socio-political systems. The radical and military nexus has further eroded the interfaith harmony, once enjoyed by all and sundry. The constitutional and legal discrimination against non-Muslims has caused Pakistan to be enlisted as a country with the lowest religious freedom.
The rapid response by the police in this case, is a welcome change, and must be praised. It is also a case that should be appreciated by human rights defenders who have strived hard against the misuse of blasphemy charges across Pakistan.
Many, have hailed the case. Mr. Nadeem Anthony, a Christian human rights lawyer, has termed the action as a positive development. Mr. Anthony has been quoted in a media report as stating, “If the state and its organs continue to perform their duties, the elements who take the law into their own hands will be discouraged”.
Although this police action is welcome change, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) feels that much more needs to be done. The blasphemy law that has cost many innocent people their lives remains a bone of contention, supporting and strengthening the majority against the beleaguered minority groups. The law is most often used to settle scores and for political gains. The AHRC urges the government of Pakistan to repeal the blasphemy law once and for all so that the religious minorities too can coexist in peace and harmony.
Religious extremism must be curbed and the State will have to play an active role in ensuring safety of all minorities and other vulnerable groups. Given the current state of affairs, it is high time that the government gets its priorities right and clearly identifies the extremist factions in its midst. Unless this is done, Pakistan cannot become a pluralist, tolerant, and moderate society that it’s founding fathers once envisaged it to be.
